The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
Computer systems are able to accomplish many powerful tasks when they are networked together in a manner to work with one another. The faster data travels between the computer systems, the more seamless the integration between disparate or distant computer systems. The size of data being collected, however, might be so massive that data can't travel from one system to another easily, or so many computer systems might be communicating with one another using the same network that network traffic gridlocks in a way to significantly slow down performance. When so much data is being transferred that computer computations slow down, there is a need to prioritize the data transfer of important computer system tasks over the data transfer of less important computer system tasks.
US2001/0007570 to Mangin teaches a method of sending a plurality of data streams along the same data channel by assigning a priority to certain groups of data, and sending groups of data with the highest priority before sending groups of data with a lower priority. Mangin's system, however, groups each data set as a function of the time when the data was sent. Sometimes, however, set of data that is sent later than an earlier set of data deserves a higher priority because that set of data is more important than the set of data that was sent earlier.
US2002/0126675 to Yoshimura teaches a method of transmitting data packets over a system, where the data packets are separated into data packets used for real-time services and data packets used for non real-time services. The data packets that are labeled as real-time data packets are given a higher transmission priority than the data packets that are labeled as non real-time data packets. Yoshimura, however, only allows a very simplistic analysis of data packets.
US2004/0264459 to Yun divides data packets into high priority and low priority data packets by using a look-up table. The look-up table could classify data packets by data size or target locations, and could then categorize data packets associated with such attributes as high priority data packets or low priority data packets. Further, Yun's look-up table only allows for a one-to-one comparison assigning a specific attribute to a specific priority.
US2008/0279205 to Sgouros teaches a system that could analyze data packets using a complex decision tree having multiple branches and levels. This allows the system to assign priority to data packets by taking multiple attributes into account. Sgouros' system, however, fails to take into account that a user might want to use a different decision tree during one portion of the process than the beginning of the process.
US2010/0103932 to Kako teaches a system that splits a data packet into a plurality of packets, and assigns a different priority to each packet. US2010/0322187 to Tani also teaches a system where data packets are prioritized with predetermined priority values. Both Kako and Tani also fail to take into consideration that one method of prioritization might be appropriate at one time, but a different method of prioritization might be appropriate at another time.
Thus, there remains a need for a system and method that alters the way data within data packets and data transmissions are prioritized during a service process.